hello, i'm del walters live in new york these are the stories we are working on on al jazeera america. voters head to the poles to make key decisions today. and also the dire outlook for syrians. and this stunning video of an aerial accident captured on camera by one of the people involved. ♪ it is the first tuesday in november. it is election day. the races and issues voters are deciding across the country are

varied and unique, and we will be taking a look at most of them, several of the key elections across the country. but we'll start with the governor's race in new jersey, which could set the stage for of all things a presidential campaign. john why are we talking about a presidential campaign in a race for governor? >> it's chris christie and he's a big personality and he did well in new jersey after hurricane sandy. he has become a national figure, big time. we have got some pictures to show you first of all. on the local level, here is barbara, she is the democratic challenger of chris christie, voting this morning. she was asked look, you are very well behind in the polls how do you feel? and she said we're in it to win it baby. that's the first big quote of the day, and we have pictures of

governor christie voting. you do have a fight on the local level, barbara accuses of him -- him of being too friendly towards the rich. but the point is if governor christie does well, then he could well end up bolstering his position to run at the top of the republican ticket in the 2016 presidential election against potentially hillary clinton. >> john you briefly mentioned the polls, but what do they suggest? >> yeah, landslide. we're looking at landslide in jersey for the first time in a very, very long time. and that's why the republican party is looking at governor christie as a potential contender. and governor christies picks up republicans and democrats who

make up 33% of this state and also votes from the -- i don't know 47% -- whatever is left of swing voters in this state who could go either way and frequently do, and that's why the republican party is looking at him because he appeals to all constituencies. >> john it seems the democrats are also taking a very close look at chris christie since cory booker ran for senate as opposed to running against chris christie for governor. >> i mean, how ironic. the problem with barbara's campaign is he has had no traction. she has been relying on the net, while governor chris christietive has raised five times the amount of money here. so she has had no traction whatsoever, and i think the whole issue, really, going forward is that, you know, governor christie's on the up at

the moment and will come here to make a speech this evening, and at the moment it's looking like it is going to be a victory speech, dell. >> john thank you very much. and the virginia governor's race is also being very closely rapped. ken cuccinelli is getting strong support from the tea party, but he has struggled to attract main stream republicans. he is now 6 percentage points terry mcauliffee. he is scoring points because he is promising to fix the health care bill. and voters in some of america's biggest cities are also choosing knew leaders today. boston will get its first new mayor in two decades. and atlanta, the incumbent facing three challengers there. and in seattle, mike mcginn is in a very tight rays against ed

murray, and whoever takes city hall in detroit is going to have to be dealing with that city's bankruptcy problems. bill deblah you is expected to win in new york in a landslide. >> reporter: joe lhota is trying to keep leadership of new york city in republican hands. >> it will keep the city safe and financially sound. >> bill de blasio. >> reporter: his opponent running a unionist campaign. >> a small group of new yorkers are doing very well, and more and more every day nighers are falling behind. >> reporter: several polls showed de blasio with a

commanding lead. the last time a democrat had that kind of lead going into an election was in 1985. the 52-year-old has a master's degree in international affairs and a long history of activism. he entered politics working for the city's last democratic mayor. >> i would like to introduce to you the next first lady of the city of new york! [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: he staged a come from behind victory over eight candidates thanks in part to a political ad featuring his son. it demonstrated the message that he would fight for every new yorker. >> he is the only one who will end an era that unfairly targets people of color. >> lhota strongly supports stop and frisk.

>> he said over and over again the era of stop, question, and frisk is over, and then the other night he said oh, no, it is not. we just need to train the cops. >> reporter: then a federal appeals court blocked a lower court ruling that said the stop and frisk policy was unconstitutional. >> it is very significant because it has ripped the heart out of the de blasio campaign. >> reporter: lhota is married with one daughter. he is spent years in the private sector in finance. >> most new yorkers are in sync with where i am. >> reporter: if poll red sox correct, lhota will need a political miracle to win. tomorrow voters will decide if it's time toing end republican rule and give democrats a chance. and voters aren't just electing candidates today we have key ballot propose tools

take a look at. in washington state voters will inside if they want labels placed on genetically modified foods. in colorado there is a proposal on the table that would tax marijuana sales using the money to build schools and fund drug enforcement. and there is a proposal in northern colorado where 11 counties want voters to decide if they would like to succeed from the state. they are called new colorado. and in texas drilling for a drought, opposition six would fund $2 billion worth of water projects in the loan star state. for updates we invite you to go to our website any time anywhere. and later this evening as the results come in, you are find them as aljazeera.com. secretary of state john kerry taking a brief deter to

poland. he addressed the spying allegations by the nsa, saying the u.s. is open to discussions on the agency and its program. >> president obama welcomes this opportunity to work with our allies, and ultimately if we get it right, which we will, we can alleviate concerns and trendingthen our intelligence going forward and we can all be safer as a result. kerry's next stop will be israel. things could be turning around for the affordable care act. a senior official in the obama administration says signing up is a little easier now. the chief telling a senate committee this morning that the site can process thousands of applications per hour with almost no errors. the obama administration says

the website will be running smoothly for most people by the end of november. and the senate is set to resume debate on a discrimination bill. it would ban employer from discriminating against gay, and transgender individuals. there are new revelations about a miami dolphins offensive linemen accused of being a bully. two people familiar with the situation selling the associated press that ricci incognito sent racist and threatening text messages to his teammate martin. doctors take an oath. they say they will do no harm, but there is a new report that aledges that doctors did just that. planning and participating in torture all in the name of

national security. al jazeera's tom akerman has more. >> reporter: is how the head of the u.s. army command describes her group. >> an organization founded on the sacred trust that exists between patients and survivors. >> reporter: but the military has fallen quite short of them according to a study by the institution of medicine, found they had taken part in abusive interrogation consulting on techniques to induce disorientation and anxiety of detainees. and force fed hunger strikers. at guantanamo detainees have been force fed in violation of a

half century long ban. >> this is one of our medical ethical principles that grounds what we do as doctors, we expect the autonomy of our patient. >> reporter: the report also accuses the defense department of failing to follow through on its own recommendations. >> the rules are still with us, and they undermine ethical practice. >> reporter: in response, a pentagon spokesman said other inquiries show the allegations were unsubstantiated. and as for force feeding, it said it will not allow a inmate to knowingly commitment suicide. a u.s. appeals court is currently considering the legal challenge to the practice.

tom akerman, al jazeera, washington. and there is a report that the situation in syria is much worse than believed. nearly 9 million people in living in that country need help. that is roughly the size of the state of massachusetts. 6.5 million syrians are currently without homes. 2 million have fled the country and 4.5 million are said to be internally displaced. >> reporter: more 40% of syria's population now relies on outside help to survive. the ref fees either inside their own country or seeking shelter elsewhere. and the situation is getting worse. the un estimates that figure will rise to half of the population in need of aid by year's end. >> it is not one single event that has caused this. it is a gradual increase because

the conflict continues to deteriorate day after day, hour by hour. >> reporter: the two and a half years of civil war have left many syrians without proper sanitation facilities, sufficient food, water, or access to medical help. of those who have fled to neighboring lebanon, the biggest come from these provinces. but for those who have been able to escape the violence, more than 100,000 are seeking shelter in egypt. more than half a million are in jordan. lebanon has the most with more than 800,000 syrians. and together turkey and iraq have around 700,000. the un says there is a will to help those in need from outside, but it is calling on both sides inside syria to allow aid in. an outbreak of pole grow in the

northeast has made the matter even more urgent, a group of doctors says it has identified 35 cases of the disease. it is extremely important for us to be able to give any kind of aid, be it food, health services, medicine, vaccination for children and so on, that we can actually reach those in need. syria and the people in syria, displaced or not, in need of assistance are going into winter. it is going to be very cold. they will need more aid, and we can't reach them. >> reporter: so as hundreds of thousands of syrians continue to leave their country and those left behind struggle to stay alive, and feed their familiar list, this humanitarian crisis appears worse than ever. coming up next on al jazeera america, a georgia man exonerated for crimes he says he did not commit finds a rather unique way to share his story.

9 eastern on al jazeera america

there's more to financial news than the ups and downs of the dow. for instance, can fracking change what you pay for water each month? have you thought about how climate change can affect your grocery bill? can rare minerals in china affect your cell phone bill? or how a hospital in texas could drive up your healthcare premium? i'll make the connections from the news to your money real.

imagine being sentenced to life in prison for a crime you didn't commit. and then nearly two decades later being cleared of any and all wrongdoing. what would you do with your life after such experience. jonathan martin introduces us to clarence harrison. ♪ >> reporter: clarence harrison is sharing his story in a way he never has. ♪ i knew i was innocent so when the judge had his say -- >> in 1987 at 28 he was misidentified in a police lineup and convicted for the rape and robbery of a woman near atlanta. he was sentenced to life plus 40 years. after more than a decade of lost appeals clarence gave up hope.

he had been told dna evidence had been destroyed until a discovery by the georgia innocents project. >> we went to the district attorney's office, and inside the box 1 of my law students found the slides. ♪ that the truth exonerated me >> since being released clarence has devoted his life to supporting the group that helped clear his name. working to clear other cases. ♪ what is justices >> melanie accomplished musician and her friend were asked to write a wrong for the organization. >> there was a kind of lightning strike between the three of us. >> it was overwhelming. it gets overwhelming thinking about it. >> reporter: that three-hour conversation morphed into a

12-song project. one song recounts the last time he saw his mother's face the day he was sentenced. ♪ my mother's face >> and she didn't get a chance to see me be released. she went to her grave that i had been falsely accused of something i didn't do. ♪ i would give everything to see my momma's face ♪ >> the music is penned and performed by melanie and ben with spoken word from clarence. >> he has a sort of almost lyrical sense of how he describes his experience. ♪ only god knows that -- >> in these songs they might be my life story, but i want people to know that this life story that i went through, there are people going through it today that need to go out of there.

>> reporter: today clairence is married to the woman who first told him about the innocents program. through this music, he says he is finding a new kind of healing. jonathan martin, al jazeera, atlanta. ♪ and i'm dave warren. seeing some winter weather developing across the midwest. the radar is tracking all of this developing here, a little yellow here indicating some heavier rain, but a little farther north it is snow. this is nebraska, and this will spread through iowa and into minnesota. and will accumulate, the close-up shows this rain, snow

line, really starting to come down fairly heavy here. but then the rain changes to snow and the snow will be heavy and could be slushy on roadways. the visibilities are dropping. that's how we see how heavy the snow is coming down. just less than a mile in north platte, nebraska, omaha is at 4 miles. once it gets down to an mile or less, that's an indication it is getting a little heavier. just to the south is heavy rain, heavy snow coming down where it's cold enough. by 6:00, 7:00 tomorrow morning, the storm is clearing out, and there is cold air behind it. about two to six inches of snow expected through this whole area, and again, with the temperature just dropping a bit, it could be mainly on grass y

areas and slushy on the roadways. is the line where you expect that wran -- rain to change to snow. dell? ♪ it is another lackluster day on wall streeting kind of like those november skies outside. like yesterday, stocks barely moving as investors sit tight. the dow in positive territory, but only up 4 points. jpmorgan settlement talks with the government are heating up again. the $13 billion deal would resolve a number of investigation into the bank sale of those questionable mortgage

bonds. negotiators are working out the final details and a deal could be reached by the engineer of the week. kmart said it will open its doors 6:00 am thanksgiving morning and stay open 41 hours straight. in prior years it did close during the day to allow the workers some time to eat their turkey. this year macy's, kohl's, and jcpenney say they are going to offer their customers thanksgiving night. look at this video, the terror these people felt, but this story does have a somewhat happy ending. ♪ uncovers unheard, fascinating news stories? it drives discussion across america.

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welcome back to al jazeera america. here is a look at your top stories, election day across america, several of the nation's largest cities are going to the polls to choose a new mayor, but the biggest races are in virginia and new jersey. voters in those states electing governors. secretary of state john kerry making a short stop in poland. among the issues he addressed the nsa spying scandal and military and economic collaboration. india says it wants to go where it has not boldly gone before it wants to explore mars. >> reporter: it's not the traditional start to a space launch, but the day before the launch, in a country steeped with tradition nothing can be taken for granted. >> lift off. >> reporter: tuesday's launch is the country's first attempt at

reaching the red planet, that if successful will put the country in an elite group of three to reach mars. >> place exploration is an area that the country can feel proud about. i think it will unite the people. i think it will overshadow all of the smaller problems that exist if we were to succeed. >> reporter: this mission has taken just 15 months. officials insist that time frame is to accommodate the window when mars is closest to the earth. but some also feel it's to make sure that india beats china to the red planet. academics say successfully reaching mars would not only be a an accomplishment for india but the developing world as well. >> they have the hope of the

third world countries reaching this level of technology, which is very important to develop the country with high-level technical jobs that will permeate in a lot of things. >> reporter: india's mars mission was a frac -- fraction of what the u.s.'s mission to mars cost. it will take at least ten months for the probe to reach the red planet. and we're now getting a close-up look at a midair collision involving two skydiving planes. these sky divers preparing to jump when these planes made contact. everyone had to take a big leap to save their lives. they were free falling from 12,000 feet along with the

burning wreckage of the plane. they all made it out safely. thanks for watching. "the stream" is next. ♪ >> san francisco from trendy restaurants to coffee shops and. a thriving city. there is search such a demand r housing it's not cheap. the average rent for a 2 bedroom is $1,900.